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People Are Captivated By This Timelapse Of A Single Cell Becoming An Organism

When does some thing become some one? With the heart’s first beat? With the brain’s first wave? Dutch filmmaker Jan van IJken has recently created a short film that might help you in your search for the answer to this difficult question.

“‘Becoming‘ is a short film about the miraculous genesis of animal life,” van IJken wrote. “In great microscopic detail, we see the ‘making of’ a salamander in its transparent egg from fertilization to hatching.”

Actually, the transparency of the egg was the main factor why van IJken chose to record the ‘becoming’ of the alpine newt in particular. “I filmed the egg in a Petri dish, in water,” he told Bored Panda. “To me, the biological aspects were the most challenging parts of creating this short. [Figuring out] how long do the processes take, what are the different stages of development, and so on. I had to become a bit of a biologist and a bit of a scientist.”

The first stages of embryonic development are roughly the same for all animals, including humans. In the film, the viewers are invited to observe the very beginning of an animal’s life, a single cell transforming into a complex living organism with a beating heart and running bloodstream.

“The salamander embryo (an Ichthyosaura Alpestris) was followed very closely in a combination of timelapse and film,” van IJken added. “All stages of embryogenesis can be seen in this film: cleavage, gastrulation, neurulation, and organogenesis. Time was condensed from about 3 weeks to 6 minutes.”

‘Becoming‘ has screened at more than 20 international film festivals, and even received the Award for best short documentary at the Innsbruck nature film festival 2018.

Watch the timelapse to see it fully evolving into an organism:

The alpine newt, or Ichthyosaura alpestris, is a type of salamander

Alpine newts are native to central and southern Europe and often sport a mottled brown color. During the mating season, however, males have a dark blue color on their backs, as well as white and black spots on their legs and a bright orange colored belly. It breeds in shallow water, where its larvae are born, hatch and feed on plankton, before sprouting legs and moving to land.

People were incredibly mesmerized by the film

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Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 235 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

And just to think, all humans start out that small as well. Unique little bundles of DNA that exist no where else in the universe, and they split and grow according to those one-of-a-kind blueprints into the amazing people we are.

Just stop w/ the anti- abortion crap... I get it- it’s not good to prevent a life from happening, but sometimes the mother is in a situation or gets into a situation while pregnant where the baby cannot live a quality life. You also have to keep in mind that every time a woman gets a period, a potential baby (an egg) is discarded. Does that mean that periods are illegal? No! I understand that a partially developed baby is different, but if a fully developed mother would die from giving birth or the baby would not live a quality life, then sometimes an abortion has to be done.

Very often a child could live a quality life if given up for adoption. I work with children with severe physical and mental handicaps, they are often wheelchair bound and cannot speak and can barely move. A number of them have recently gotten eye scan technology that uses their line of sight as a computer pointer. They are still smarter than you think! One boy started with the reading comprehension of a 2-3 grader (USA), just think how much more he can learn now that everyone knows that he can! I encourage you to read Johnny Got His Gun when you think about judging a person's quality of life.

And just to think, all humans start out that small as well. Unique little bundles of DNA that exist no where else in the universe, and they split and grow according to those one-of-a-kind blueprints into the amazing people we are.

Just stop w/ the anti- abortion crap... I get it- it’s not good to prevent a life from happening, but sometimes the mother is in a situation or gets into a situation while pregnant where the baby cannot live a quality life. You also have to keep in mind that every time a woman gets a period, a potential baby (an egg) is discarded. Does that mean that periods are illegal? No! I understand that a partially developed baby is different, but if a fully developed mother would die from giving birth or the baby would not live a quality life, then sometimes an abortion has to be done.

Very often a child could live a quality life if given up for adoption. I work with children with severe physical and mental handicaps, they are often wheelchair bound and cannot speak and can barely move. A number of them have recently gotten eye scan technology that uses their line of sight as a computer pointer. They are still smarter than you think! One boy started with the reading comprehension of a 2-3 grader (USA), just think how much more he can learn now that everyone knows that he can! I encourage you to read Johnny Got His Gun when you think about judging a person's quality of life.